In a recent episode of the TSIA Takes series on the TECHtonic Podcast, Thomas Lah, Executive Director of TSIA, engaged in a conversation with Nick Mehta, CEO of Gainsight. They delved into the evolving role of customer success (CS) and its undeniable value in today’s tech-driven business landscape.

In this blog, you’ll discover the key insights from their conversation, exploring how customer success has become a crucial function for tech companies and continues to evolve. By the end, you’ll understand how to leverage these insights to enhance your customer success strategies and stay ahead of industry trends. 

For the full conversation and in-depth findings, be sure to visit the TSIA Portal and listen to the complete episode.

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From Reactive to Proactive: The Evolution of Customer Success

The conversation began with Nick Mehta reflecting on the origins of customer success, noting how the concept has grown significantly over the past decade. “When I think back ten to eleven years ago, it was really different. We were transitioning from on-prem to cloud and SaaS models,” Mehta said. This transition highlighted the importance of ensuring that customers derive value from software products, as the low barrier to exit meant that customers could quickly leave if they weren’t satisfied.

Early pioneers like Salesforce played a crucial role in shaping the customer success function. They measured attrition as a core metric and focused heavily on churn mitigation. Mehta noted, “It was about preventing loss, and early on, it might’ve been like the cable company trying to convince you not to cancel, and then it became more proactive.”

Related: TSIA Takes: Salesforce and the Customer Success + Support Services Experiment

Customer Success: The Backbone of Modern Tech Companies

Today, over 70% of technology companies have a distinct customer success organization. Despite its widespread adoption, there is growing pressure to integrate customer success with other functions, particularly support. Mehta emphasized that while combining these functions can create a more seamless customer experience, it’s vital not to lose the core value that customer success brings: driving adoption and ensuring customers achieve their desired outcomes.

Redefining Roles: The Integration of Customer Success and Beyond

The podcast highlighted the trend towards creating more integrated customer-facing teams. This includes the emergence of the chief customer officer (CCO) role, which often encompasses support, professional services, customer success management, training, and community functions. About 40% of companies over $100 million have a CCO, and this number is growing.

Mehta also discussed how some companies are bundling customer success with premium support and training to create monetized packages. However, this approach works best for products that are already mission-critical.

Another emerging trend is the integration of pre- and post-sales functions under a single leader, often called a chief revenue officer (CRO) or a similar title. This holistic approach eliminates the dichotomy between pre-sales and post-sales, creating a more cohesive customer journey.

Related: Maximizing Your Customer Success Team

The Relationship Between Sales and Customer Success

The podcast delved into the critical relationship between the sales and customer success teams. Mehta pointed out that collaboration between these teams is essential but often challenging to implement. He highlighted several strategies that successful companies are using:

• The pod model: Teams are organized into pods that include a customer success manager (CSM), an account executive (AE), a sales development representative (SDR), and a sales engineer. This structure fosters collaboration and ensures a seamless customer experience.
• End-to-value journey mapping: This involves mapping the entire customer journey, from the value promised during the sales process to the value delivered through implementation and ongoing support. It ensures that what was promised aligns with what is offered.
• Innovative role integration: Some companies are experimenting with having the same individuals handle sales and post-sales responsibilities. This model ensures accountability and continuity, although it can be operationally complex.
  

Related: Sales and Customer Success: Aligning for Growth

The Impact of AI on Customer Success

AI is rapidly transforming the customer success landscape. Mehta shared several ways AI is being leveraged to enhance customer success functions:

• Automating support: AI-driven tools are helping automate Level 1 support and enhance Level 2 support, improving efficiency and customer satisfaction. This includes AI assistants for agents, quality tools for managers, and customer-facing chatbots.
• Early warning systems: AI can analyze emails, calls, and other interactions to provide early warning signs of customer dissatisfaction. This allows customer success teams to intervene before issues escalate.
• Eliminating grunt work: AI automates routine tasks, freeing up customer success managers (CSMs) to focus on higher-value activities. This includes automating note-taking, updating customer relationship management (CRM) systems, and extracting relevant information from customer interactions.
• Creating a collective brain: By aggregating knowledge across the organization, AI empowers CSMs with previously inaccessible insights and best practices. This unified intelligence significantly enhances customer success teams’ ability to address and fulfill customer needs effectively.

The Future of Customer Success

As AI and other technologies continue to evolve, the role of the CSM is expected to become more strategic. Mehta envisions CSMs becoming more verticalized, similar to sales teams, with deep industry knowledge and the ability to advise customers on aligning their business goals with the product’s capabilities.

Furthermore, integrating customer success and sales functions is likely to deepen, with both teams collaborating more closely to deliver value to customers. This will require a shift in mindset and a willingness to experiment with new models and approaches.

In conclusion, the value of customer success is undeniable, and its role within tech companies is evolving rapidly. By embracing AI, integrating functions, and adopting a beginner’s mind, companies can unlock the full potential of their customer success teams and drive sustained growth and customer satisfaction. 

To explore these insights in greater detail, listen to the full TECHtonic Podcast episode with Nick Mehta on the TSIA Portal.

Your Key Takeaways

• The evolution and importance of customer success: Nick Mehta emphasized the significant growth of customer success over the past decade, transitioning from focusing on churn mitigation to a proactive approach that drives customer value. Early pioneers like Salesforce played a crucial role in shaping this function, making customer success an integral part of tech companies’ strategies.
• Organizational integration and collaboration: The podcast highlighted the trend of integrating customer success with other customer-facing functions, such as support and professional services, under roles like chief customer officer (CCO). This integration aims to create a seamless customer journey while maintaining customer success’s core value: ensuring customer adoption and satisfaction. Mehta also discussed innovative models, such as the pod structure, which foster collaboration between customer success and sales teams.‍
• The transformative power of AI in customer success: AI is revolutionizing the customer success landscape by automating support tasks, providing early warning systems for customer dissatisfaction, and eliminating routine tasks. This allows CSMs to focus on higher-value activities. AI also enables the aggregation of organizational knowledge, enhancing the ability of customer success teams to address customer needs effectively and strategically.